Blog Entry 5- Power and Opression.

   Reading this next chapter gave me a whole new take on the society I live in and how much change STILL needs to be done in order for TOTAL equality to be exhibited. Chapter 5 defines and examines what power is in a sociological concept and how it affects every level of our society. It also states how power influences our lives on a daily basis. Power is defined as the ability to bring about an intended outcome, even when opposed by others. It is defined by its two components, one being the ability to bring about an intended outcome and the other the capacity to dominate others.

   The article, "The Five Faces of Oppression," is mainly about oppression and its different kinds (exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, violence, and cultural imperialism.) It speaks of oppression and how it does not always mean to be ruled by a cruel person with similar cruel intentions, but also limiting one's ability to become fully humanized thus denying their rights to many different opportunities. This article had 5 main points. 1. Exploitation is having people work for you or do some kind of labor and not properly compensating them. It is a system which grants the people in power to remain in power while suppressing others’ opportunities. (The rich get richer and poor poorer.) 2. Marginalization is the exclusion a group of people from the main population. This is associated with the idea of one single white race and other groups being disregarded. I believe that as a Latina my race is many times subject to marginalization because it is sometimes hard for Latinos to find jobs if they do not speak English and usually are discriminated against. 3. Powerlessness is the lack of decision making power and being exposed to maltreatment because of the lowered status. This is allows believed to be the most severe form of oppression because people oppress themselves and others and think very little of them selves. 4. Cultural Imperialism is the taking of the majority class's culture and establishing as a norm. In other words, it is actively promoting one culture into preexisting cultures declaring it appropriate behavior.
5. Violence is being the most obvious and visible form of oppression, in which people live in fear of being victims of random, unprovoked physical attacks on themselves or their property. Violence is used to damage, humiliate and ultimately break the person on whom it is inflicted on.

   I can tie this article to the video “The Milgram Experiment,” because the video was associated with violence and oppression as well as the powerlessness of those in the experiment. The video was a replicate experiment in which law abiding citizen were put to the test of inflicting lethal electric shocks in the name of science. The experiment was misleading because they were told it was based on memory tests. While those involved where actors the person applying the shocked was not thus ultimately 9 out of the 12 completed the experiment delivering very lethal shocks to the counterpart. Five main points which I was able to grasp from the video are as follow. One the point of the experiment was to see if the “teacher” would call a stop to the test when they believed the subject was experiencing too much pain. Two the learner went silent after a certain level of shock to create this idea that they were unconscious of even dead. Three, throughout the experiment the actor professor emphasized how important it was for them to continue as it was their obligation. Though he did not have any physical power, he was a figure of power present in the room. Four, the influence of this experiment was ideological concerning what the “teachers” believe science to a beneficial advancement for society. The fifth and last main point of the video is that violence is in everyone but it is brought out by different circumstances. Normal people in this experiment were subject to delivery gruesome pain to others (although no one was actually shocked) indisputably convincing that violence can be justified under specific circumstances.

This experiment connects to chapter 5 “Power” as well as the article “The Five Faces of Oppression,” because they all articulate about how an intended outcome and the other the capacity to dominate others. They connect through oppression, conflict and violence. The learners in the video were powerlessness because the teachers controlled the amount of voltage they received. I strongly believe if I was in this situation I would have been one of the three out of twelve people who did not complete the assignment. I believe this because it goes against my morals in purposely hurt another human being unless my life depended on it. Is violence necessary? I would say yes in extreme cases, such as school shootings, or when one person is threatening the lives of many, hence North Korea recent threats on the United States. Cases like these makes me few for the future and those in power.